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Ron Gregory ronjgregory@gmail.com

July 9, 2014

Thank goodness for Target. And Qdoba, Starbucks and any other business that has the good sense to ask patrons to leave their guns outside.

Before Target announced their no-gun policy, I was in a local buffet restaurant. It was appalling to watch some old fellow in blue jeans and parade back and forth to the bar with a gun holstered to his belt.

If he was a member of law enforcement, there was no visible sign. If he was not, as I suspect, he and management are both insane. My grandchildren are never going to be exposed to gun-toting customers if I can prevent it.

What on earth does anyone need with a gun in Target Department Store? The silly argument that, by announcing that patrons can’t bring guns in, it encourages some criminal to shoot the place up is, likewise, pure insanity. Target never said security and law enforcement cannot have guns; just wild-eyed, shoot-em-up-cowboy customers.

Can you imagine Marshal Matt Dillon encouraging people to wear a gun? He took office at about the time the wild west had realized civil people do not live that way. And if you are so afraid that the government is going to move in and take all your freedoms, a strategically placed bomb by whichever federal authority decides to fire it would probably take care of most of your guns.

“Guns don’t kill; people do.” I’ve heard that over and over. But people fire them and make them kill. The Second Amendment does not guarantee every loony on the planet has a right to carry a firearm.

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Semantics is a thing of beauty — or not. In the case of new Mingo County Circuit Judge Miki Thompson, I would refrain from calling an oath of office ceremony “private.” But Thompson has repeatedly done that. She had a “private” swearing-in after Governor Earl Ray Tomblin finally appointed her and now she is having a “public” ceremony Thursday.

Although I do not think Thompson implies what it appears from her language, I would think twice before calling anything involving a circuit judge position “private.” Considering the history of Mingo Ciunty Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury, too much “privacy” led to a few, minor problems, as I recall.

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Mingo Republican Chair Russell Deskins finally came out of his cave long enough to make perfect sense at the opening of the Southern West Virginia Republican headquarters in Logan last week. Deskins appears to hide from the press and public on a routine basis. But when he took the floor in Logan, he was right on.

Deskins took offense at State Senator Evan Jenkins for praising the headquarters opening and implying Republican efforts in Southern West Virginia have been pathetic in the past. The Mingo chair was correct in lecturing Jenkins about his knowledge of past GOP efforts since Jenkins just switched from Democrat to Republican to run this fall against Democrat Congressman Nick Joe Rahall.

Jenkins doesn’t know any more about the GOP history in Southern West Virginia than he knows about suffering coal miners in Wyoming County. He is an opportunist trying to ride a tide of resentment against President Barack Obama. He insulted all Southern Republicans who have labored hard in the past.

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Perhaps only the state’s chief election official opposes the public’s right to vote. My candidate for U.S. senate, Natalie Tennant, appears to be against the idea of holding an election to choose who fills out the family court judge term in Mingo. All others, including the most important, County Clerk Big Jim Hatfield, say an election should be held. A Tennant spokesman stopped just short of saying the secretary does not believe in the public’s right to choose their own elected officials.

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I appreciated the gesture by Southern Republicans in bringing a red velvet cake for me to the headquarters opening. I’m still for Tennant.

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Monongalia Democrat State Senator Bob Beach posted a photo of a new “senate vehicle” on social media last week. Attired with a “Senator Bob Beach” logo, the truck also sported the state seal on the rear sides. When asked if it is “still illegal” to use the state seal in a political campaign, Beach quickly responded that the truck is his “state senate vehicle” and does not say “elect.”

Apparently, state senators are paid more than I knew to afford such a truck as a “senate vehicle.” The next thing you know, Beach will be sending taxpayer-paid letters to historic voters in the midst of his fall campaign. Colleagues like Senator Daniel Hall “liked” Beach’s truck. I suppose all will soon be cruising around in them.

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Like Chris McDaniel, the unsuccessful U.S. senate candidate in Mississippi, Logan County’s Richard Ojeda is a sore loser. Although I did not communicate the numbers correctly last week, Ojeda has been a cry baby before, during and after his primary loss to Rahall. As Ojeda prepares to run against State Senator Art Kirkendoll in two years, he doesn’t appear to be a very loyal Democrat by chastising Rahall. Perhaps he, too, will switch to the Republican party where his roots apparently are.